THE ANT-COLONY AS AN ORGANISM’ 
WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER 
As a zoologist, reared among what are now rapidly coming to 
be regarded as antiquated ideals, I confess to a feeling of great 
diffidence in addressing an audience so thoroughly versed in the 
very latest as well as the very oldest biological facts, methods and 
hypotheses. I feel, indeed, like some village potter who is bring- 
ing to the market of the metropolis a pitiable sample of his craft, 
a pot of some old-fashioned design, possibly with a concealed 
crack which may prevent it from ringing true. Although in what 
I have to say, I shall strenuously endeavor to be modern, I can 
only beg you, if I fail to come within hailing distance of the advance 
guard of present day zodlogists, to remember that the range of 
adaptability in all organisms, even in zodélogists, is very limited. 
Under the circumstances, my only hope lies in appealing to our 
permanent common biological interests and these, I take it, 
must always center in the organism. But the point of view from 
which we study this most extraordinary of nature’s manifestations, 
is continually shifting. Twenty years ago we were captivated by 
the morphology of the organism, now its behavior occupies the 
foreground of our attention. Once we thought we were seriously 
studying biology when we were scrutinizing paraffine sections of 
animals and plants or dried specimens mounted on pins or pressed 
between layers of blotting paper; now we are sure that we were 
studying merely the exuviae of organisms, the effete residua of 
the life-process. If the neovitalistic school has done nothing else, 
it has jolted us out of this delusion which was gradually taking 
possession of our faculties. It is certain that whatever changes 
may overtake biology in the future, we must henceforth grapple 
1 A lecture prepared for delivery at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods 
Hole, Mass., August 2, 1910. 
307 
